Today the Budget and Tax Center released a brief, “Barriers to Opportunity: The Growing Problem of Concentrated Poverty in North Carolina’s Neighborhoods”, that takes a look at the impact of high-poverty neighborhoods on the well-being of its inhabitants. Using a measure called “concentrated poverty”, which captures neighborhoods that have poverty rates of 40 percent or more, the brief finds that there was a dramatic rise in the number of North Carolinians living in concentrated-poverty neighborhoods from 2000 to 2006-2010.

Key findings from the brief include:

In 2006-2010, 143,445 North Carolinians who were poor lived in concentrated poverty, and the state’s concentrated poverty rate stood at 10.2 percent.

From 2000 to 2006-2010 the number of concentrated-poverty neighborhoods in the state nearly tripled, and the number of people living in these neighborhoods who were poor more than tripled.

African Americans and Latinos living in North Carolina who were poor were more likely to live in concentrated poverty in 2006-2010, compared to their white counterparts. Children who were poor were more likely to live in concentrated poverty than the average North Carolinian who was poor.

Related Publications

If you want to read more about poverty in North Carolina, check out these publications and resources:

The Budget and Tax Center, a project of the NC Justice Center, seeks to create economic opportunity and shared prosperity for all North Carolinians through non-partisan research, education and advocacy on budget, tax and economic issues. Visit them at www.ncbtc.org.